Almost Home - Hardcover

Nora Raleigh Baskin grew up in Brooklyn and New Paltz, New York. She now lives in Connecticut with her husband and two sons.

Grade 4-6-Sixth-grader Leah's sense of self is badly shaken when she learns that her mother's weeks-long silence has been hiding a cross-country move that doesn't include her. The fact that her "mother" is actually her stepmother is only gradually revealed to readers. As Leah starts to let go of her bitterness, she makes tentative progress toward a solid relationship with her father and a restored sense of who she is. The strengths of the book are Leah's well-developed character and the realistic nastiness she displays as an outlet for her misery. Her inability to focus on schoolwork and her purposeful attempts to wound her father's new wife both help to capture the extent of her loss. The close friendship she forms with a boy is less convincing, given sixth-grade social norms. In addition, her father is drawn as a puzzlingly positive character, which seems at odds with her previous lack of relationship with him. Readers who enjoy quiet stories of personal growth will likely overlook these slightly implausible plot elements and respond to Leah's journey as she seeks a place to belong.
Faith Brautigam, Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL
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